Principal Farica Chang is featured in Small Business Bonfire, a gathering place and resource for everything small business, as an expert in remote work.
Are you in need of expert IT consulting? Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting firm that specializes in system administration for small businesses. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.394.3001 or email us at info@andersontech.com.
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Principal Farica Chang is featured in CO by U. S. Chamber of Commerce, a resource for everything business owners need in times of national emergency and otherwise.
Are you in need of expert IT consulting? Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting firm that specializes in system administration for small businesses. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.394.3001 or email us at info@andersontech.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert IT consulting advice and quote us in articles for their readers.
Cyber security is in the news, and Anderson Technologies is offering our expertise. Principal Farica Chang is featured in Ms. Career Girl, a site providing education and tips for women at work.
Are you in need of expert IT consulting? Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting firm that specializes in system administration for small businesses. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.394.3001 or email us at info@andersontech.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert IT consulting advice and quote us in articles for their readers.
A timely recommendation from Anderson Technologies’ Farica Chang provides education and advice regarding the January 14, 2020 Windows 7 End of Life date.
A few thousand dollars spent now is better than tens or hundreds of thousands demanded by ransomware and the loss of confidence your clients in the future.
Are you in need of expert IT consulting? Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting firm that specializes in system administration for small businesses. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.394.3001 or email us at info@andersontech.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert IT consulting advice and quote us in articles for their readers.
If you’re still hanging on to outdated hardware running Windows 7, you’ll no longer receive updates, attack countermeasures, and security patches.
Your Windows 7 machines—and entire network—will be vulnerable to new breaches, exploits, malware and viruses.
It also means that, starting today, no Windows 7 computer is HIPAA compliant. Using hardware that cannot be protected with patches and updates means the Security Rule is not being followed, and if a breach does occur, you’ll probably be liable.
Anderson Technologies recommends upgrading all Windows 7 machines and other Microsoft offerings that also reach End of Life today, including Hyper-V Server 2008/Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2.
What’s the Big Deal?
Businesses and organizations in every field should take end of support for an operating system seriously. Cyber crime is on the rise, and while many criminals continue to target anyone who will click their bait, many more see the value in targeting vulnerable access points to a network, knowing that the data and additional connections they unlock can really pay off. Recently, hundreds of nursing homes and veterinarians lost access to patient data, and multiple municipalities in Texas were effectively shut down due to their software and cloud providers being compromised by ransomware.
It’s not a question of if you’ll be targeted, but when.
For any business, staying up to date on all security and software patches is an essential part of the electronic era. After today, anyone running Windows 7 is holding the door open for cyber criminals once the newest zero-day threat is identified and exploited. Don’t count on your cyber insurance to cover any ransom or damages you incur in the event of an attack. Many cyber insurance policies require businesses to have certain security measures in order to pay out, and an updated and patched OS is one of the most basic protections you can have.
If you operate in the healthcare vertical, staying up to date is not just important, it’s the law. Under HIPAA, any Covered Entity or Business Associate must comply with the same standards. Having patched and routinely updated hardware is part of HIPAA’s Security Rule, and failure to comply won’t just mean trouble from cyber criminals. The Office of Civil Rights can levy significant fines for businesses that knowingly ignore cyber security guidelines.
In the accounting vertical, operating from an unsecured OS could leave you in breach of the FTC Safeguards Rule, and your client data will be vulnerable.
Staying up to date on all security and software patches is essential when fighting cyber crime. After January 14, 2020, anyone still running Windows 7 is inviting cyber criminals in through an unguarded, open door.
What Options Do I Have?
Extended Support for Windows 7. Microsoft’s extended support plan is only available to users running Windows 7 Pro or Enterprise through volume licensing. Contact your IT provider or Microsoft representative to determine if you are eligible. If you are, you can purchase up to three years of extended Windows 7 support, starting at $50-$100 per computer for the first year and doubling in price each year following. This is not a long-term fix, but it could allow you to spread out your upgrades over several years instead of upgrading your equipment all at once.
Windows Virtual Desktop. Microsoft is also offering three years of support for free with Windows Virtual Desktop. If you’ve been considering moving to the cloud, this might be a good time to look into Azure and reduce hardware costs.
Update OS to Windows 10. If hardware costs are holding you back from getting a fully-supported machine, updating your existing computers to Windows 10 might be the most cost-effective option to remain secure. Unfortunately, many computers running Windows 7 are not capable of efficiently running Windows 10.
Upgrade Hardware for Maximum Security. The most secure option moving forward is a secure OS (Windows 10) paired with up-to-date hardware built to run modern software and protect data.
If upgrades just aren’t feasible—maybe essential software isn’t compatible with Windows 10 or you’re operating on Virtual Desktop—security should be at the forefront of your mind. Move forward with updates and upgrades when you can, and until then:
Do not connect Windows 7 computers to the internet.
Don’t store client data on unsecure systems.
Back up your business data daily and make sure these backups are configured to adequately protect them against cyber attacks.
The time to act is now. Don’t be caught with your IT systems wide open to the next cyber attack. Upgrade to Windows 10 before it’s too late. Anderson Technologies can help. Contact us at 314.394.3001 or info@andersontech.com.
Remember Roomba? Maybe you have one, zipping around your home, getting caught under furniture and amidst wires. That seemingly simple machine, armed with programming and dust-sucking, became seamlessly integrated in the lives of millions. But even at the height of the Roomba revolution, there wasn’t a lot of talk about smart vacuums stealing our jobs or taking over our homes.
Everyone is fascinated with artificial intelligence right now. It is hard to deny the buzzword power of the term. Tinged with fear or awe, AI often feels like the answer to everything—or our impending downfall.
The reality is far from either. As it stands now, AI like the programming in Roomba, or Roomba’s grown-up relatives found at Walmart and Giant Foods, is a powerful tool. Limited to specific tasks or deep learning, AI may just be the best coworker you’ve ever had.
Is AI Coming for Our Jobs?
Here’s the truth: For employees whose primary job function may easily be replaced by single-task AI, the job hunt may be on. Computer-screen ordering interfaces and shipment-sorters may in fact reduce hours for the humans who previously held those positions and others like them. Fortunately, many businesses are utilizing AI as an opportunity to free their employees for more complex and customer-facing tasks.
For every job that might be eliminated or reduced, there are many more that just don’t work without human hands and minds.
And because thankless tasks are becoming automated, human workers can now spend their time and energy immersed in the more creative aspects of their jobs.
AI and IT: Working Together for You
It may not surprise you to learn that IT is currently the field most welcoming to our AI coworkers. For IT managed services firms that balance the cutting edge with enhanced security, a cautious approach still finds that within specific, defined roles, AI provides valuable services.
Tools like firewalls, antivirus, and remote monitoring, among others, are IT staples that frequently employ AI. There is a firewall AI, for example, that can be programmed to track traffic patterns (volume, uploads and downloads, behavior on websites), and if something appears contrary to what has been deemed “normal” patterns, the associated software can automatically isolate a user’s workstation and alert a human team member that there has been a potential compromise.
Deployed on a larger scale, this type of monitoring and pattern-detecting AI frees IT professionals from manually watching the same traffic. This means billing hours go to solving problems and providing meaningful solutions instead of wondering if a large file download is suspicious.
AI also has the potential to detect patterns and flag issues that human experts can’t identify themselves. Given data sets and known problems, machine-learning AI may move the IT industry into truly predictive safeguards. If used widely, this could mean no more frantic break-fix calls after hours because AI team members have long since identified the developing issue, and human counterparts have already fixed it.
AI as part of a managed services offering doesn’t have to feel inhuman. As a tool utilized by humans in order to provide an enhanced, fuller package of IT services, AI improves experiences.
Do you have questions about AI and what it could do to improve your business’s IT systems and cyber security? Call Anderson Technologies today at 314.394.3001 or send us an email at info@andersontech.com.
Mark Anderson’s expert advice is featured in E-Commerce Times, providing context for the upcoming Windows 7 End of Life date.
The most visible threat to an unpatched OS is ransomware planted on your computer or network in an effort to extort money for returning your data. If you’re an etailer or other electronic business, losing your customer list, vendor information, and invaluable store data could leave you out of business for days, weeks or permanently.
Paying the ransom doesn’t ensure all the data will return or that you can return to normal operations in time to mitigate the costs. If you don’t have recent, secure backups that didn’t get compromised, your recovery options are severely limited.
Are you in need of expert IT consulting? Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting firm that specializes in system administration for small businesses. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.394.3001 or email us at info@andersontech.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert IT consulting advice and quote us in articles for their readers.
The world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) may not have a more well-known figure than Elon Musk, entrepreneurial head of Tesla and SpaceX. In a 2014 interview, Musk stated: “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.”
While Musk’s concerns haven’t been proven completely unfounded, AI today functions strictly within the realm it is programmed for. Becoming a “demon” with expanding abilities and intelligence out of our control is currently beyond its limited capacity. Even AI that is designed to “learn” only learns within the confines of what it has been specifically programmed for, and as driverless cars show us, learning and doing are two different things.
Driverless Limitation
One of the most glaring examples of AI’s current limitations is in the rise in autonomous vehicles. General Motors, Uber, Waymo, and Tesla’s Autopilot are only a few in the race to true self-driving cars. Driverless car software utilizes machine learning, and the software is far from perfect.
Recognizing a bicycle and then anticipating which way it’s going to go is just too complicated to boil down to a series of instructions. Instead, programmers use machine learning to train their software. They might show it thousands of photographs of different bikes, from various angles and in many contexts. They might also show it some motorcycles or unicycles, so it learns the difference. Over time, the machine works out its own rules for interpreting what it sees. – Zachary Mider, Bloomberg
But as much as a computer learns about what potential hazards might look and act like, computers still have no grasp of three basic concepts: time, space, and causality. This approach, while it does keep a self-driving car from becoming KITT or Herbie, also keeps self-driving cars from being truly 100% error free. Unlike human drivers, cars will never be able to fully understand consequences or anticipate randomized behavior that may be apparent from factors these cars haven’t been programmed to recognize.
And what about scenarios that self-driving cars aren’t being trained for? In October 2019, testing by AAA indicated that dummy pedestrians crossing the road were hit 60 percent of the time, even in daylight and at low speeds. Such obvious limitations should, and do, give users pause.
While self-driving technology may be improving in some ways, seven in ten Americans still have no interest in using—or even sharing the road with—driverless cars. Driver-assist technology, on the other hand, is far more popular. Human input and supervision, it seems, still offer something that machine learning cannot replicate. Driver-assist technology allows users to benefit from the areas where AI has excelled, such as alerting drivers when they veer from the center of a lane or back up too close to an obstacle, but humans still stay in control to make split-second decisions on the road.
Functioning in Limited Capacities
While driverless car technology dominates headlines, AI is being used successfully in more limited capacities. Where machine learning does excel is in analyzing data sets far too large for human processing.
Using publicly available data and AI, university student Anne Dattilo discovered two exoplanets. Footage from Kepler space telescope tracked “100,000 stars in its field of view.” Dattilo’s modified AI was programmed to identify and flag stars that, due to light fluctuations, appeared to have planets. Dattilo and human colleagues confirmed the findings.
Elsewhere, scientists are using AI to sift through audio recordings for the sounds of elephants in the rainforests. This data is then used to count the animals, helping to provide a more accurate picture of population and poaching rates.
These highly focused uses of AI have proven successful in accomplishing what humans alone could not. Success in the science field, however, doesn’t seem to translate to highways or a grander intelligence.
A Constrained Approach
Some researchers hold the belief that machine learning and AI as it exists now simply may not hold the keys to the change promised by innovators and fiction writers, and the ways AI has been used so far seem to support this.
According to skeptics like [Gary] Marcus, [professor of cognitive psychology at NYU,] deep learning is greedy, brittle, opaque, and shallow. The systems are greedy because they demand huge sets of training data. Brittle because when a neural net is given a “transfer test”—confronted with scenarios that differ from the examples used in training—it cannot contextualize the situation and frequently breaks. They are opaque because, unlike traditional programs with their formal, debuggable code, the parameters of neural networks can only be interpreted in terms of their weights within a mathematical geography. Consequently, they are black boxes, whose outputs cannot be explained, raising doubts about their reliability and biases. Finally, they are shallow because they are programmed with little innate knowledge and possess no common sense about the world or human psychology. – Jason Pontin, Wired
While AI may provide some incredible shortcuts in daily life and populate wells of information, these limitations mean that fears of an all-powerful, all-knowing “demon” remain far from tangible. The need for oversight and limits in AI is no joke, and Elon Musk may yet prove to be a technological prophet of sorts. But the truth is, we have no reason to fear our robot overlords today.
Are you interested in the ways AI can enhance your life and business? Are IoT devices creating gaps in your carefully maintained cyber security? Contact Anderson Technologies today for enlightened solutions to all your technological troubles. We can be reached by phone at 314.394.3001 or email at info@andersontech.com.
The smart phenomenon that is the backbone of the Internet of Things (IoT) may be reaching coming-of-age.
In our previous introduction to artificial intelligence (AI), we discussed how machine learning has impacted the worlds of cyber security and research by processing millions of times the information a human worker can analyze in the same amount of time, detecting patterns and producing solutions.
How are these patterns detected? Patterns are determined by analyzing populated data sets. When it comes to consumers, where does that data come from?
The answer is smart speakers, smart thermostats, smart cars, smart lights, smart shoes, and yes, even smart water bottles.
These devices might make life a little easier, but they also collect data.
Similar to the practice of collecting data in exchange for free services (like social networking sites Facebook and Twitter), IoT devices provide a service to the user but also provides a glut of information for the developers. Developers state that this information is a tool for them to hone smart services, enhancing the users’ experience. It also happens to be true that the data collected by services and smart devices is worth a lot of money.
That isn’t to say that every single IoT device, or even every device referenced in this post, a) collects data, b) stores that data, c) stores that data in a way that connects it to a user’s identity, or d) monetizes or sells that data.
The real danger of IoT data collection frequently comes from users not being informed about what their smart devices are truly capable of.
Data for Dollars
The intersection of AI and IoT means that the massive amount of data collected on users is processed and patterns extrapolated. Those patterns amount to near-endless insights about identity, family, routine, device usage, shopping practices, purchase history, and search history.
Some makers of smart televisions use this information internally, providing users with tools and advertisements that are deemed beneficial and that they are more likely to be interested in. However, some sell that data to third parties. Facebook is now infamous for the internal and external monetization of user data. Companies like Cambridge Analytica sold processed data on the promise of hyper-targeted advertising possibilities and detailed demographic, and advertising susceptibility, breakdowns.
Data collected and the patterns gleaned from it are incredibly valuable to marketers . . . and cyber criminals.
And that doesn’t even cover the personal data lost in IoT breaches.
From smart homes to smart speakers to fitness trackers, security breaches of IoT devices have been in the news since smart technology began developing. Recent findings suggest that IoT devices are more susceptible to breaches than other technological devices. The 2019 Study on Third Party IoT Risk by the Ponemon Institute found that at least 18% of respondents experienced a data breach caused by IoT devices being unsecured.
For higher-value targets, unsecured IoT devices often act as an entry point into an otherwise secure internal network, and even if the network isn’t breached, IoT devices are often used by hackers to conduct Denial of Service attacks.
Are Data Collecting Devices Inherently Dangerous?
The fact is that there is a risk to almost any action. One of the hardest parts of being a digital citizen is staying aware of and educated about the tradeoffs you are making with your data.
Most smart devices or websites provide a service that is useful to the user. Whether the purpose of a device is information, connection, or convenience, the Internet of Things aims to streamline digital and physical life, which can be very attractive.
Insecure data and sale of personal information doesn’t have to be the norm. Many companies currently ensure that data collection is anonymized, keeping searches and voice commands tied to an algorithm rather than your name and face. In August 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released their guide for cyber security recommendations for these devices, and with increasing public awareness of security flaws, the industry as a whole may be moving towards a more secure model.
For many, even the risks or sale of their data is worth the benefit of the smart device.
Despite news stories on privacy, breaches, and sale of data appearing daily, it doesn’t appear that the Internet of Things is going away.
Tips to Keep Your IoT Devices Safe
Fully research new IoT devices you plan to introduce to your digital ecosystem. Know the type and amount of data collected, how it is stored, and the history of the company building the device. Weigh potential risks against potential benefits.
Turn off tracking and reporting when you can.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to ensure that the only person accessing your account is you.
Protect your business and home networks with hardware firewalls and don’t use your IoT devices on unsecured WiFi.
Are Internet of Things devices a net positive for your business? Contact Anderson Technologies today for help using smart tools in a smart – and secure – way.
Computer technology moves at a blazing pace. Blink once and the world of tech steps forward a light year. Blink twice and suddenly what was once cutting edge is now commonplace. No day is the same in the tech world as the standards, methods, and products constantly change and improve.
We’ve written previously about how valuable human data is to the tech industry. Whenever you spend time on your internet-connected devices, virtual scouts track and collect your data to build human profiles. This data provides a wealth of information to companies, data brokers, and even potential cyber criminals, which is one of the reasons it’s so important to stay on top of the latest tech threats.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tech-industry term that’s been thrown around more and more when discussing cyber security—especially by industry innovators like Elon Musk. Depending on who you talk to, this futuristic-sounding technology is either the solution to every problem or the biggest threat to you and your business’s digital well-being. The best response to emerging technologies like AI is education, so let’s explore this concept and empower you to decide what to implement in your corporate and personal lives.
What Is AI, Anyway?
Artificial intelligence, also referred to as machine intelligence or machine learning, is a branch of computer science that pushes technology to learn and solve problems from sets of data. It’s a big part of what makes “smart” technology so smart. Systems that use AI analyze data patterns to develop algorithms that make programs work more efficiently. This “intelligence” mimics the human brain’s ability to learn and apply information to new problems.
These algorithms power the technology we use every day: inbox filters, social media feeds, predictive text, online shopping recommendations, and virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. If you’ve used Google Home or iMessage today, you’ve already experienced AI technology. For example, iMessage’s predictive text algorithm analyzes the patterns in your text messages and uses it to suggest words and phrases as you type.
Artificial intelligence has so many different uses, and its breadth allows more than just the information technology field to benefit. Manufacturing companies, financial analysts, and even biologists use AI to process data and identify trends that would take human minds years of constant dissection to solve.
Is AI Dangerous?
AI has gained a bit of a negative reputation from sci-fi books and movies, often portrayed as a menacing force of infinite knowledge that aims to dominate humanity. Projects like Sophia the AI robot give a pretty face to this mimicry of human intelligence. However, these real and fictional depictions are far from the most common ways AI is applied. Real-life AI technology is, for the most part, innocuous without human motives behind it.
Pop culture has fun anthromorphizing AI, but in reality, AI machines are limited to the data sets they’re built to address.
Credible concerns about AI are rooted in its human weaknesses. The goal of AI research and development is to mimic human reasoning so problems can be solved faster than humans could physically achieve. Like any technology, AI requires real people to design, program, and evaluate it.
Self-driving cars have been in the news for the last few years, and despite several pedestrian and driver fatalities AI research preserves the dream of autonomous transportation. Imagery algorithms for drone technology and surveillance software (like the facial recognition you might use to unlock your phone every day) power these autonomous processes that read and react to data sets. But even with a human driver in the front seat, self-driving cars can’t realistically predict events they haven’t been programmed to respond to.
Imagery technology tends to make people apprehensive about their privacy as well as their safety on the roads. Beyond scanning your tagged Facebook photos or unlocking your iPhone, facial recognition software has the potential to elicit a global response. Government and immigration agencies are already using AI technology to implement policies, regardless of negative implications on citizens’ privacy. And the phenomenon of “deep fakes” has revealed a latent anxiety about taking online content of world leaders at face value. Regulation is still underway for most kinds of AI, leaving researchers and corporate funding to run rampant with a technology that’s growing faster than protective agencies can keep up with.
AI systems are susceptible to human biases, even if we don’t deliberately program them that way. Without actual human reasoning, perfect AI function takes a lot of trial and error. This is why spam email sometimes ends up in your inbox while an account verification email gets sent to the junk folder. AI needs constant human refinement. Pop culture has fun anthromorphizing AI, but in reality, AI machines are limited to the data sets they’re built to address.
What Should I Know About AI Technology?
As AI technology continues to develop, it provides exciting opportunities to strengthen cyber security. Managed service providers like Anderson Technologies integrate new AI-powered software into existing practices. AI technology can chew through mountains of seemingly unrelated data and uncover previously hidden relationships and patterns, allowing MSPs to bring to bear more robust solutions for their clients. For example, to address a universal threat vector, adding an intelligent email-filtering software like Proofpoint serves as a very strong first layer of defense against malicious emails.
As a business owner, it’s wise to stay on top of upcoming technologies, whether or not you decide to implement them in your daily work. AI enables more powerful systems—but the same applies to cyber criminals. Intelligent machines can learn which users and programs are susceptible to certain threats, and they’re also very skilled when working with patchy data sets. A human hacker might overlook patterns that an AI-powered program is designed to seek out and exploit.
Machines have strengths in areas where humans are weak, and vice versa. As AI continues to trickle into more of our everyday experience, concerns about privacy and regulation become more tangible. While AI itself has no virtue signal, the people directing it prove it has frightening potential. But, just like jokes from Sophia the robot, with cautious exploration AI seems set to do more good than harm.
Do you have questions about the application of AI for your business? Contact Anderson Technologies today and stay tuned for more articles discussing the emerging technology of artificial intelligence.
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